Transcending Religions' Meaning and Value

Religion is a special way of sharing ourselves with others. Perhaps the best thing that we may share with others through our religions is our connectedness to each other and to our Creator.

We may go through many relationships with religion in our lives. Some of us may find our spiritual path by only a single religion, whether they find that path through their religious heritage or go seeking a path on their own. Some of us may try many religions and may finally understand that none of them will be their single path to the divine; these people may go on to develop a personal, independent relationship with their Creator.

Whether we have followed one religion or sampled many different religions, many of us celebrate our relationship to our Creator through religious worship. Our sacred traditions remind us of the intimate ways we are connected to each other and to all of Creation.

Some of us may sometimes err in our perceptions of religions. We may think one or another of the many religions we encounter may be false or hurtful. It is true that we may sometimes experience hurts from the careless words or hands of those who practice their religion sanctimoniously or dogmatically. There may always be those who would exclude from grace anyone who will not bow down to those holy laws peculiar to their own religion, holy laws which they may often purport to be the only path to God.

Everyday Spirituality - Life As Prayer

We are participating in an explosion of new age teaching, interest in eastern religion, and a general curiosity about the usefulness of everyday spiritual practice. When you turn on the television, it seems just about every talk show host is discussing how to maximize human potential and help viewers become a more advanced version of self.

In our effort to reach higher, spirituality is a major interest in the books we read, the classes we take, and the inner peace we want to find. Accordingly, there is growing dialog concerning differences between traditional religious teaching and a form of spiritual practice termed: everyday spirituality or spirituality of the market place. Interestingly enough, the usefulness of spiritual practice in everyday life is an ancient teaching, and lies at the heart of human development systems like Sufism; where travelers are taught, through ordinary daily activity, to align with the Higher and make life a prayer.

To help travelers add this practical approach, we will examine the basic difference between traditional religious form and spirituality; offering various 'things to know, and things to do' while following a personal spiritual path.

Reflections From Meditation - Religious and Spiritual

After one ends a period of meditation or prayer, it is a powerful experience to write out words that come to you. Following are some of the ideas that came to me about religion springing from my life experience. They, of course, may be very different from your personal views.

My grandmother was a very fervent member of the Episcopal Church. She believed fully in religion. She was a deeply spiritual woman who continually searched for God's will in her life. My mother, raised in that environment, was also deeply spiritual. When she married my father she became a Roman Catholic, not too different from the Episcopal Church in many ways.

What I've seen within religion are two groups of people. There is the spiritual and then those interested in control over others.

The spiritual are connected to God. They've discovered that what they knew intellectually as the Supreme Being was not outside of themselves, but love within themselves. Someone who has had a truly spiritual experience will talk about how much stronger they feel by giving themselves over to whatever name they use for God.

With the discovery that God is within, people who have had a spiritual awakening discover their personal power which is within them. It is not unusual for this type of experience to result in what can be called mystical experiences. Mysticism leads people to realize that they don't need someone "out there," as in religious leaders, to tell them what is God's will. Many of these people leave what is called traditional religion and find their way into what is known as New Age spirituality.